John Fleenor/ABC
Before I’d even watched The Golden Bachelor, I had a feeling that this one could be different. It’s not just that the Bachelor spin-off’s 71-year-old leading man, Gerry Turner, has a folksy vibe that screams, “Take me to your family reunion to play cornhole.” And it’s not just the charming, accomplished, fascinating women that Gerry has the privilege to date—although they certainly don’t hurt. More than any individual character, what’s set Golden Bachelor apart in its first two episodes is its ethos. Unlike The Bachelor and most other conventional dating shows, this one is actually on its cast’s side.
As fun as chaotic dating shows like Bachelor/ette, Love Is Blind, and FBoy Island can be, they also rely, at least to a degree, on humiliation. From the goofy contestants who tend to go home on Night One (if we’re lucky) to those who behave badly as the proceedings intensify, these shows invite us to recoil in embarrassed anguish at all the weirdness humanity has to offer. The Golden Bachelor, on the other hand, respects its elder contestants enough to frame their stories with dignity and context. The end result? A show that’ll make you laugh, cry, and maybe even believe in flash mobs again.
The Bachelor might be more than two decades old, but its “Golden” counterpart is brand new—and so, this week opened with all of the women moving their things into the mansion. There were gasps of delight over the pink rooms, and there were raised eyebrows when the women realized that some of them would be sleeping in bunk beds. (Much respect to Sandra, who declined to take the top bunk in deference to her knees; this nonsense should be reserved for the twentysomethings in the franchise.)